Catching Up is Hard to Do!!

Ok, so I admit it. It has been forever since I've posted on here. I've had some spare time but when I did, I just wanted to crash and not work on my blog. Sorry! But, here I am for a few minutes anyway.

First of all, on August 20th, we went to San Diego to visit my daughter, son in law, and 3 grandsons. Usually we do lots of sightseeing while we are there but this time, it was mostly spent working on their new house which they had just moved into a couple of weeks prior to our arrival. There were still boxes to be unpacked, windows (LOTS of them) to be washed, cupboards (LOTS of them) to be washed, kids to be watched while parents ran errands, etc etc etc. They bought a wonderful ranch home on an acre of land in the Mt. Helix section of La Mesa. It has a large pool, a wonderful patio, a small orchard, a small barn (full of spiders right now), and lots and lots of different kinds of vegetation. What a fantastic place to raise three energetic boys. I took lots and lots of pictures. Here are a few.

Oh, and did I mention the pool???

We worked but did take time for some family fun, such as a campfire on the patio. Or a trip to one of my favorite spots--Old Town San Diego.

And a meal in my favorite Old Town restaurant.

We had a great trip but all good things must come to an end. We headed home the day after Labor Day and then the real work began!

As some of you know, there has been a big upheaval at CROW where I have volunteered for almost 9 years now. Our head vet, Dr. PJ, resigned after more than 10 years at CROW. She pretty much made CROW what it is today. A new executive director and assistant were hired last January and in 6 months have kind of made CROW their own leading to the resignation of at least 5 employees, Dr. PJ being one of them. Along with her was the acting Development Director, The Buildings director, the Senior Rehabber and one of the receptionists. That on top of letting one of our other rehabbers go in June and out new intern not showing up has left CROW is a terrible bind! We depend a lot on students and volunteers. The students have all gone back to school so we only have 2 now and many of the volunteers are snowbirds and aren't back yet. We have one vet and 1 full time rehabber in the clinic as well as l full time rehabber/handyman and 2 part time rehabbers outside. Even the receptionists are busy cleaning cages when they aren't answering phones. Sooooo--to make a long story short, I am trying to take up some of the slack myself and am volunteering in the clinic 4 days a week now. I usually work between 6 and 8 hours a day---or as long as my back holds up. My main job right now is taking care of and feeding MANY baby squirrels. Thank goodness baby bird season and baby squirrel season don't happen at the same time!

This is pretty much how I spend my days--and no, I did not take this picture, I borrowed it from online.

So that is pretty much my life right now. Not that I'm complaining. I love working with Dr. Amber, Nikki, my baby animals and most of the rest of my CROW family.

This Way Thurs-Way--Signs Along the Way

This Way Thurs-Way is all about photos of signs, paths and things pertaining to being on the road. When you are done looking at my picture, why don't you hop on over to This Way Thurs-Way and check out some others.

When we were in San Diego, we went to Torrey Pines National Preserve for a hike. The area is beautiful but obviously a bit dangerous.

Stained Glass

When we were in San Diego, Karen, Chuck, Noah and I went to Old Town for a couple of hours. It's always so much fun looking around. I saw this beautiful stained glass window. Wish I had room for it!

When I looked again, I found that something had been added to the picture!

Mellow Yellow Monday-Old Town

I love this meme called Mellow Yellow Monday. Lots of yellow pictures to brighten up a Monday. After you look at mine, hop on over and see lots more.

We just returned from a 10 day visit to my daughter's who lives in San Diego. I always love going to Old Town because of the bright colors--especially the reds and of course the yellow. Here are a couple of shots I took while there

Back Home

Well, I'm back, somewhat over my jet lag, somewhat rested, and somewhat back in the swing of things. We had a great time and did lots of different things this time since we've already done all the touristy stuff--or a lot of it! This is going to be a really long post so you may have to read it in installments. LOL

We left for San Diego on Tuesday the 12th. We were to fly out at 6:30 but thanks to the really bad cold spell in Florida, our plane developed ice on the wings. And believe it or not, Ft. Myers airport doesn't have de-icing equipment. (Gee, I wonder why?) After we all got on the plane and settled in, our captain announced that we couldn't take off until the sun came up and melted the ice off the wings. So, we were allowed to get off again. I knew that we were going to miss our connecting flight in Houston so I made reservations for the next available flight. This meant a 5 hour layover in Houston. Ugh. Oh well, as my grandson, Sam, said--It beats a layover in Atlanta's airport. And he was right. (Hate the Atlanta airport!). Anyway, we finally took off about 8:00 after sitting on the tarmac with our wings pointed to the sun. And we got to Houston 20 minutes after our original connecting flight took off. We finally made it to San Diego about 5:00. Karen picked us up and took us home. After some talk, some dinner, some playing with the kids, some unpacking etc--we both went to bed at about 8:30 their time--exhausted!
One thing I always ask for when we go to Karen's is a "girls day out". So on Wednesday, Karen and I went to the Gaslamp district for lunch. We wandered around, hit a couple of shops, had lunch at an Irish Pub, hit more shops and headed home.

Michael had Thursday off work, so we all headed to Torrey Pines State Preserve for a hike. It was a gorgeous day-probably the best of the whole time we were there. Took tons of pictures.On Friday, Karen, Chuck and I took the kids to the LaJolla beach. It was chilly and blustery with high surf advisory but it was still a nice day on the beach. Lots of "surfer dudes". The kids had a ball building sand castles and playing with seaweed whips.That evening, Karen, Chuck and I went to see Jesus Christ Superstar--my birthday present. The show starred Ted Neeley who played Jesus in the movie 30 years ago! Ok, so he was a bit stiff--alright--a LOT stiff, and his voice wasn't what it used to be but he could still hit those high notes when necessary. As Karen said, he has played Jesus for longer than Jesus played Jesus. Anyway, we still enjoyed it.On Saturday we went house hunting with Karen. We hit a couple of houses. One house was kind of what Karen wanted but needed another bedroom or office. The other house wasn't quite what she wanted but had a gorgeous view of San Diego. Too bad one house couldn't go on the other lot!Karen had been promising Noah a trip to Old Town to the Rock Shop since his birthday so that afternoon, Chuck, Karen, Noah and I headed to Old Town. I have always loved wandering around there. Noah got the rocks he wanted, I got a new sun catcher for my deck, and then we headed to one of the restaurants for Margaritas and Nachos. Yum.That evening we drove to Chula Vista to meet the Farmers. I have been reading her blog, The Farmer Files, for sometime now and we finally got the chance to meet her, her hubby and Son #1 and Son #2. Son #3 was sleeping so I didn't get to cuddle him. Oh well. We thoroughly enjoyed sitting around their outdoor firepit, making S'Mores, and getting to know each other.On Sunday, Michael and Noah did some Daddy/Son stuff while Chuck, Karen and I took the twins to the Wild Animal Park. I really love both the San Diego Zoo and the WA Park. We hadn't been to the park in a couple of years so I wanted to go back. We had a great day. We didn't have a stroller so the boys walked most of the way--when we weren't carrying them! Monday was my 72nd birthday! Geez, I don't feel that old. Karen baked the yummiest cake! And Noah made me a birthday card. And Chuck gave me a bottle of red adult beverage. It was a great birthday. That takes us up through Monday. Monday was also the start of what I called "Monsoon Rains" in California. So, we pretty much stayed in the rest of the week. Karen, Chuck and I did go out to a movie one afternoon and saw Sherlock Holmes. We got totally soaked running from the theatre to the car. The rest of the time, we watched movies at home, played on the computer, got my requested In N Out Burgers etc. Karen took us to the airport Friday morning at 4:15 to catch our 6:30 flight. The day before many of the flights in and out had been cancelled because of high winds. Luckily, we didn't have that problem Friday so we got out on time, made our connecting flight, and got into Ft. Myers at 4:45 our time--and it was raining! Good old Mother Nature.

Anyway, we had a great time but it is always good to come home. Thanks Karen and Michael for a great time. I will post more pictures of the kids in another post later on.